Cathodic protection is the most widely accepted technology in the world for the protection from corrosion of pipelines, wells, tanks and other structures which are buried or submerged in corrosive electrolytes. There are national and international normative bodies which require production, storage and transportation operators of hydrocarbons through pipelines to apply systems which control exterior and interior corrosion, including predominantly cathodic protection.
An act of vandalism of cathodic protection rectifiers can cause irreparable damage which may lead to the total loss of the investment in the cost of purchase and installation. Besides the loss due to damage caused to the rectifier, the price of the interruption or intermittence of the cathodic protection to the structure must be considered, and this may lead to corrosion, accidents, leakage of valuable fluids, ecological damage and interruptions in service.
A search of open literature as well as that which refers to intellectual property did not reveal the existence of inventions related to the protection of cathodic protection rectifiers against vandalism. The search which was carried out only revealed the following:
In the state of the art there are only some apparatus designed to provide anti-vandalism protection for underground structures in places of public access, for example, a basin with a protective anti-vandalism top (ES1063394U), which protects vegetable matter or street furniture which may be inside it from theft or manipulation; however, there is no alarm system involved. We also found apparatus which protect artifacts located in public places, for example, an anti-vandalism hydrant (ES1030934U, ES1030935U), or public telephones (BRMU8103399U). These inventions are limited to very specific fields and the artifacts protected do not require additional functionality apart from the protective structure.
Patents for constructive schemes of a variety of configurations for systems of cathodic protection were also looked through (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,515,669, 4,504,375, 6,193,443 B1, 6,461,082 B1, 4,089,767, 6,331,242 B1, 6,214,203 B1, 4,175,021, 6,744,265 B2, 3,868,313, 4,169,028, and 5,305,631). In none of these was reference or consideration found related to the social phenomenon of vandalism, nor were constructive elements found which could be thought to be similar to those described in the patent which we will now describe.
In pertinent literature we found that patent application MX/a/2008/011513 partially defends a system for cathodic protection from vandalism attacks; however this patent application does not protect the active element of this system. The latter, the rectifier, is the objective to be protected by the present invention since it represents the highest cost and most frequent objective of attacks.
This invention simultaneously provides a solution to the cathodic protection of the buried structure, as well as protecting the active element which is most vandalized in this type of systems; the rectifier. Thus, not only is the investment in the cathodic protection covered, but also, the investment in the protective system, since there is a possibility for uninterrupted cathodic structural protection, thus prolonging the lifetime of the buried structure, the final objective of the cathodic system.